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Objective: To describe early childhood caries (ECC) patterns and evaluate the associations with maternal caries experience and other factors., Methods: A secondary analysis was undertaken using data from the Study of Mothers' and Infants' Life Events Affecting Oral Health (SMILE), a population-based birth cohort study. It used data from 1040 mother/child dyads. Standardized oral examinations of the mothers and the children were conducted when children were 2-3 years old to determine the prevalence of ECC (main outcome) and maternal caries experience (main exposure variable). Maternal sociodemographic characteristics, time-restricting conditions (relationship status, work status and number of children in the household) and dental health behaviours (brushing frequency and sugary beverage consumption) served as covariates. Data on child dental health behaviours were collected at two years of age. Multivariable models were generated for ECC to estimate prevalence ratios (PR) for the association between ECC and maternal caries experience, controlling for the covariates., Results: The prevalence of ECC among 2- to 3-year-old children was 10.6% (95%CI: 8.7%-12.5%). It was higher in children whose mothers had greater caries experience. Children whose mothers had higher caries experience had 86% (PR = 1.86 [1.27-2.72]) greater risk of having ECC than those whose mothers had low caries experience. Children whose teeth had not been brushed the night before had a higher risk of ECC (PR = 1.4 [1.01-1.9]) than their counterparts. Women born in Australia, New Zealand or the UK had offspring with lower risk of ECC., Conclusions: Maternal caries experience was an independent risk factor for offspring ECC. However, good oral health behaviours practised by mothers for their children may alleviate such risk. Mothers need to be supported to adopt good oral health behaviours and a healthy diet for their child., (© 2020 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: The "failure of success" theory predicts that as subsequent generations of older adults retain more teeth, those additional teeth will experience more oral disease like root surface caries. The theory in relation to root surface caries has never been tested in a cross-generational study. This study aims to compare root surface caries across generations of South Australian older adults to test the theory and explore risk indicators for root surface caries., Methods: Data were from the baseline of two South Australian studies separated by 22 years. In both studies, stratified random samples of people aged 60+ years from Adelaide and Mount Gambier were recruited. Dental examinations were performed by trained and calibrated dentists. One of the dental examiners from the earlier study was the gold standard examiner in the second study. Risk indicators included behavioural factors, clinical oral conditions, sociodemographic and socioeconomic status. Root surface caries was assessed as untreated root surface caries (root decayed surfaces [RDS]), treated root surface caries (root filled surfaces [RFS]) and treated or untreated root surface caries (root decayed and filled surfaces [RDFS]) and was presented as the prevalence and summed count. Multivariable models for Poisson and negative binomial distributions were used to estimate prevalence ratios (PR) and mean ratios (MR), respectively, and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI)., Results: The current generation of South Australian older adults has significantly lower RDS (PR [95% CI] = 0.65 [0.47-0.89]; MR [95% CI] = 0.51 [0.35-0.73]) and RDFS (PR [95% CI] = 0.84 [0.71-0.99]; MR [95% CI] = 0.76 [0.65-0.90]) than the previous generation. The RFS in the previous and current generation was similar. Gingival recession, irregular brushing, dental visiting for a problem and smoking were the indicators for RDS, while age, gingival recession, tooth brushing frequency, time since last dental visit and reason of visiting were the indicators for RFS or RDFS., Conclusions: These results do not support the "failure of success" theory in relation to root surface caries among South Australian older adults. Despite the higher number of teeth retained, the current generation of older adults has less root surface caries than the previous generation. Behavioural factors remain the indicators of root surface caries across the generations., (© 2019 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)